De Oliveira pic nabs Eurimages cash

Twelve European films share $6.1 million

By ED MEZA

BERLIN — Manoel de Oliveira’s romantic drama “Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl” is among 12 pics to share Euros 4.38 million ($6.1 million) handed out by European funding org Eurimages.

“Eccentricities,” which is adapted from a short story by 19th-century Portuguese writer Jose Maria Eca De Queiros, is a Portuguese-French-Spanish co-production.

The film, about a young man who falls desperately in love with a mysterious blonde woman, picked up $210,000. De Oliveira, who just turned 100, is currently shooting the pic.

One of the biggest grants, $835,000, went to Marius Holst’s fact-based Norwegian tale, “King of Devil’s Island,” the story of two brothers set against the backdrop of a violent showdown between the Norwegian army and inmates at a boy’s prison in 1915.

Pic is produced by Norway’s 4½ Fiksjon, Poland’s Obus Film, Sweden’s St. Paul Film and Mact Prods. in France.

Receiving the same figure was Gianni Amelio’s French-Italian “Le Premier homme,” co-produced by France’s Soudaine Compagnie and Cattleya Spa.

Andreas Pichler’s German-Austrian documentary “Ueberleben in Venedig” (Surviving in Venice), from Germany’s Filmtank and Austria’s Golden Girl Filmproduktion, nabbed $56,000.

Other grants, ranging between $625,000 and $700,000, went to Safy Nebbou’s French-Belgian “Signe Dumas,” Aron Gauder’s Hungarian-Icelandic animated feature “Egil, az utolso pogany” and Paco Cabezas’ Spanish-French-Swedish laffer “Neon Flash.”